"It's alright, Mrs. Calloway. I'm here to listen." He sighed. "As is God. This life is full of suffering and pain, but He's suffered with us and understands."

She nodded, her shrewd eyes catching the fact that he seemed resigned. He wasn't the same as she remembered... he was more deflated than she recalled the last time she saw him. Her mouth curled downward in a small frown. "Ye should come to see the babes... They are getting bigger and have discovered their feet." She was trying to make him feel better even though she didn't know what was wrong.

Gabriel looked up. "I would like that," he said, a little lighter. He meant it.

"They continue to amaze me every day, I am sure they would do the same to you." She chuckled and then sighed, "I am lucky to have the employer I do. He allows me to let the little ones stay with his child whenever I need a moment to meself. It's been a blessin'. I've been hired on to do the laundry fer his household and he's rented me a lovely cottage."

That raised mild alarm. Gabriel looked at her sharply. "Is he reliable?" he asked. Of course some people were charitable, but this was a lot of care for someone who merely did laundry, and a suspicious amount of care of a man for a woman in a vulnerable position.

"Aye. He takes good care of all of us... his employees, that is." She nodded, "He is a very kind soul." And he reminded her too much of Harold as far as his personality went. "I've been with them fer a little time now. He is a widower who knows what I am goin' through, and has not acted anythin' but gentlemanly around me." She wouldn't mention that she was more than attracted to him, but it didn't matter anyway because she had been staying away from him in that regard. But it was almost a year since her husband died, just two more months would make a year, and she had never felt as secure as she had in that moment.

That reassured him. "Well, I'm glad to hear that. Please, if anything there does make you feel uncomfortable, come to me." He had heard too many stories who had been tricked or bribed of pressured into indecent acts by employers, and he wanted to make sure that she would not end up in such a situation.

"I will..." she said. She felt comforted even after all of the hubbub. Her mouth curled up in a slight smile and she stood up. "I suppose I had better get back to me bairns before long. I don't like to impose."

Gabriel rose and nodded. "Remember," he advised her. "This is not a substitute for confession. But if you really feel uncomfortable with Father Kemble, you could always travel to a different parish to confess there."

She nodded. "Thank ye, father." Karen moved then, pausing long enough to place a comforting hand on his shoulder for a mere moment, no more than that because it would be considered inappropriate. "Just remember, ye're human too and need a reprieve." And with that, she drifted out of the church.